John Surratt was born on April 13, 1844 in
the Washington, D. C. district of Congress Heights. Surratt was the
youngest child of John and Mary Surratt.

Surratt, who intended to become a priest, enrolled
at St. Charles College in Maryland, where he met Louis Weichmann who would
become first a good friend, and later his chief nemesis.

Soon after John's father died in August, 1862,
Surratt became postmaster of the small Maryland town of Surrattsville,
first settled by his family. By 1863, Surratt was working as a Confederate
secret agent, carrying messages to Confederate boats on the Potomac River
and sending messages about Union troop movements in the Washington area
south to Richmond.

John
Surratt's Role in the Conspiracy

Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt to
John Wilkes Booth on December 23, 1864 in Washington. Surratt joined
the Confederate conspiracy to abduct President Lincoln and participated
in the March 15 meeting with other conspirators at Gautier's Restaurant
on Pennsylvania Avenue, where plans were laid for a March 17 kidnapping.

On the night of April 14, 1865, Surratt--by
his own account--was in Elmira, New York on a spying mission for General
Edwin Lee. He fled to Canada upon learning of the President's assassination.
He remained in Canada until after his mother's execution on July 7, 1865.

John
Surratt on Trial

In September, 1865, Surratt crossed the Atlantic,
settling first in England, then later in Rome, where he joined the Papal
Zouaves. While visiting Alexandria, Egypt in late 1866, Surratt was
identified as the wanted Lincoln assassination conspirator and arrested.

Surratt was brought back to the United States
for trial in a civilian--not a military--court. The trial began on
June 10, 1867. After listening to testimony from 170 witnesses, the
trial ended on August 10 with a hung jury. The federal government
eventually dropped all charges against Surratt and he was released from
custody in the summer of 1868.

Surratt's
Activities After His Trial

In 1870, Surratt began a much-heralded public
lecture tour to discuss the Lincoln conspiracy. In a December 6,
1870 speech at a courthouse in Rockville, Maryland, Surratt admitted his
involvement in the scheme to kidnap Lincoln, but denied any knowledge of
the assassination plot. Surratt's next announced speech on the tour,
scheduled for Washington, was cancelled under pressure from citizens outraged
by his attempt to profit from the President's death.

In 1872, Surratt married and took a job at
the Baltimore Steam Packett Company. Surratt was the last surviving
person with close ties to the Lincoln Conspiracy. He died of pneumonia
on April 21, 1916.